PKI PKI Public Key Infrastructure PKI is a

PKI

PKI (Public Key Infrastructure) • PKI is a set of standards, procedures, software, and people for implementing authentication using public key cryptography. PKI is used to request, install, configure, manage and revoke digital certificates. PKI offers authentication via digital certificates, and these digital certificates are signed and provided by certificate authorities.

• PKI uses public key cryptography • If a company wanted a public key they would require a digital certificate. They will have to request this certificate from a certificate authority or a registration authority. • The certificate authority is someone who everyone should trust as a centralised authority for managing and maintaining certificates. • The CA will require the company to fill in a number of details and validate their request before they can hand out a certificate. • This certificate is a proof that the company is who they say they are in the digital world (like a passport in the real world). An RA is just an organisation who processes requests on behalf of a CA.

certificate authority (CA) (issue and verify Certificate) • A certificate authority (CA) is an authority in a network that issues and manages security credentials and public keys for message encryption. As part of a public key infrastructure (PKI), a CA checks with a registration authority (RA) to verify information provided by the requestor of a digital certificate. If the RA verifies the requestor's information, the CA can then issue a certificate. • Depending on the public key infrastructure implementation, the certificate includes the owner's public key, the expiration date of the certificate, the owner's name, and other information about the public key owner

registration authority (RA) • A registration authority (RA) is an authority in a network that verifies user requests for adigital certificate and tells the certificate authority (CA) to issue it. RAs are part of a public key infrastructure (PKI), a networked system that enables companies and users to exchange information and money safely and securely. The digital certificate contains a public key that is used to encrypt and decrypt messages and digital signatures.